SLC champion Colonels downright defensive in win over Lions to capture River Bell trophy

HAMMOND – Nicholls was downright defensive in its 21-16 win Thursday night at rival Southeastern Louisiana to capture the River Bell trophy and to secure the outright title as Southland Conference football champions.

The Colonel defense held SLU to 218 yards of total offense, 113 rushing and 105 passing. More importantly, however, was the way Nicholls defenders kept the Lions out of the end zone.

A combination of costly penalties and turnovers by the Nicholls offense constantly had the Colonel defense playing on a short field.

That allowed the Lions numerous opportunities to score, but each time the Nicholls defense forced Southeastern to settle for field goal attempts.

Even SLU’s lone touchdown came from field goal formation.

Facing fourth-and-5 at the Nicholls 6-yard line on Southeastern’s opening possession of the game, the Lions set up for what appeared to be a field-goal try. Instead, SLU holder Justin Dumas took the snap from center and raced to his right for a touchdown and a 7-0 Lions lead.

One five other occasions, trips into the red zone by Southeastern ended up in field-goal tries. The Lions made three and missed two, allowing the Colonels to come away with the five-point win to go undefeated in Southland play.

“It’s just a bunch of guys stepping up,” said Nicholls defensive coordinator Tommy Rybacki. “These guys worked really hard this week to get ready to play the game. We had some guys step up in some spots who weren’t starters, but they prepared the same way this week and credit to them. They played really hard and were able to get it done.

“It’s those guys sticking together and believing in each other, believing in the program and everything we do. When you do all that, you have a chance to have success and make some of those moments happen.”

The reason guys had to step up was because Nicholls lost three defensive starters early in the game.

Southeastern’s scoring drive was penalty aided. The Colonels were called for two personal foul calls on the drive, the second being a targeting call against linebacker Quinton Sharkey that led to his ejection.

On the Lions’ next possession, safety Tyler Morton also was ejected for targeting.

Later in the first half, Nicholls lost linebacker Kershawn Fisher due to an injury.

“All year long we’ve been one blade mentality defense,” said senior defensive lineman Perry Ganci. “It doesn’t matter what happens, they get a turnover, they have the ball on the 1-yard line, it doesn’t matter, we are going to go out and execute and get the stop.

“Our motto is ‘find a way.’ It doesn’t matter what happens, we keep punching and find a way.”

“I feel like us as a defense, we pride ourselves in not letting too many people into that end zone. We preach bend but don’t break. Not everything will go your way, but you’ve got to fight through it, fight through it, and keep punching, and get some good field position for our offense,” senior defensive back Jordan Jackson said.

It’s a defensive effort that has not gone unnoticed by the Nicholls offense.

“These guys have been tremendous all year. They do a great job of stopping offenses and letting us play our game the way we want to,” said junior running back Collin Guggenheim.